Shops Challenged By Tire Technology
With ongoing refinements encircling the rims-and-rubber realm, repair facilities face the choice of either outsourcing the work to tire specialists or jacking-up their equipment inventories and enhancing employee training.
“You’re going to have to get with the program,” declares David Scribner, tire/wheel-category product manager for Hunter Engineering in Bridgeton, Mo. “The people who don’t are going to be in big trouble, both operationally and training-wise.”
Although run-flat tire options are currently enduring consumer resistance – complete with a pair of class-action lawsuits filed over alleged performance issues – expect both run-flats and Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS) to eventually rule the road.
“There are technologies being introduced in Europe that will come here soon. Things are moving very fast, and they will continue” to be introduced to American drivers at a rapid clip, Scribner reports.
“It took decades for the radial tire to become accepted,” he recalls. Yet there will be no such delays going forward with TPMS and run-flats. “This type of technology is inevitable.”
(TPMS will be required on U.S. vehicles beginning with the 2008 model year. For a related story, click here.)
The best strategy is for shops to begin preparing for these innovations. The service industry is just beginning to respond and a lot of the existing repair equipment is obsolete. There’s also the issue of training, since these tires demand specific repair procedures.
“The old days of just taking crowbars to rims are gone,” agrees Joe Henry, president of ACT Automotive Staffing, an industry recruiter based in Palm Harbor, Fla. “More people are buying high-performance and high-end tires and wheels.”
Mistakes by shops could prove to be deadly for drivers, while scrapes and scratches born of making-do with the wrong tools or incomplete knowledge can create customer service concerns.
Some shops opt not to perform such repairs, outsourcing unfamiliar wheel-and-tire work to tire specialists.
“We send things down the street if we can’t handle it,” reports Brian Manley, who operates a vocational education-based repair facility for the Cherry Creek School District in Aurora, Colo.
Such tire/wheel systems remain a minority, although the proper training and equipment will be pursued as they become more common, says Manley, a triple master certified technician per the National Institute of Automotive Excellence (ASE) and a member of the National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation (NATEF) board of trustees.
“We still do our own tire repairs,” says Lisa Brundridge, marketing manager for Autotrust. “We’ve gotten a couple of new tire machines in the past couple of years,” and training is consistently updated at the Appleton, Wis. shop.
“We don’t like balancing the new high-performance rims – we farm that out,” Brundridge continues, citing small numbers of “tuners” who buy these items over the Internet and bring them to Autotrust for installation. Such products can present time-consuming complications best avoided, she says.
“The aftermarket wheel and tire segment is big” throughout the nation, Henry reports.
However, he goes on to say that many shops – especially independents – may chose to outsource these installations, along with run-flats and TPMS because of the cost involved.
“The equipment to do it is a harsh investment,” he explains. “All the big chain operators have the latest equipment,” plus the properly trained personnel. “You can become a ‘tire tech,’” says Henry. “That [phrase] didn’t even exist eight years ago.”
“You have to learn how to install and treat them properly,” says Scriber, especially with ongoing developments that may not be apparent to the untrained eye. “A wheel and tire that looks ‘normal’ may have something inside it that the technician is not aware of. You have to use caution if there are sensors inside the tire. Some are easier to identify than others.”
